Spain’s burning of the bull: help prevent needless suffering and agony

Has civilization as we know it come to an end? Or was it simply a myth to begin with?

I hate Spain’s running of the bulls. I understand that it’s part of the culture, but each year I actively avoid the news coverage around it. Whether the ultimate goal is a fierce dog fight or an animated circus performance, forcing an animal to exist under inhumane conditions for the entertainment of humans is wrong. Even if the bull has lived a decent life up to that point, I’m disgusted by accounts of the final hours.

Until I received this email, I had no idea that a practice even more brutal is taking place on an annual basis in the Spanish province of Soria: In an event that goes on for hours, a live bull is slowly burned to death.

According to the change.org website:“Jeering mobs torture a bull with balls of burning tar or turpentine (called “pitch”) attached to his horns. A bull’s horns, body and eyes are scorched. Some try to escape hours of agony by smashing into walls.”

While I vehemently disagree with harming animals for the benefit of humans, I understand that there are some instances when taking the life of another is a matter of survival. But to simply torture for the sake of torture? In what sadistic, horrific world is that tolerated?